oregons new eastern oregon unit change for 2026

[dan.kirkpatrick]

got the new synopsis for 2026,,prettymuch all of eastern oregon deer units and boundary's are new this year,,along with tag numbers,,some look like tag reductions.wondering what folks think of this change and what will be the hotter deer units with the changes,,anybody to put out a estimation of points needed on certain hunts?pretty much a guessing game this year.

 

[dan.kirkpatrick]

im sure there are some other oregon guys on here that hunt the east side//so far over the years i havnt seen odfw do much to help the struggling herds,,more water guzzlers would be a good start down on several of the s e units,,even though the names have changed im guessing the previous "better" units will still be popular.if we could knock down the predators that would help also

 

[Salmonchaser]

Watching this myself. I’ve looked into the science behind the changes and honestly believe it is something that should have been done long ago. My understanding is we’ll apply based on the subunits in the greater region. But I’ve had a couple variations on how points will be managed. There will be bitching. It is a start when science prevails over emotional arguments. Controlling predators is not ODFWs fault, they are constrained in that regard by Willamette valley voters who outlawed hounds and bait. They, ODFw do as much as they can with Studies in problem areas, keeping the hounds of a few guys well trained and they have loosened the restrictions on obtaining lion and bear tags. Lion tag is the only tag you can buy during the season. It is by far the cheapest tag a non resident can buy. Both bear and lion are $16.50. Bear tags can be bought after the start of deer season but you have to pay a small processing” fee, contact your local ODFW office, I’ve done so the last two years after deciding during scouting I wanted to hunt bear again. IF you ask me, when it comes to predators, ODFW is making it easy on guys to shoot lions and bears, they just want you to have a tag on it by the time you get to town.

 

[gouch]

At least they are trying to do something to better manage the deer herds. We will see if it makes any difference but, at least on paper, it makes a lot of sense.

 

[Salmonchaser]

I have been able to sit down regularly with a couple of recently retired biologists. I was suprised to learn how many challenges there are. Poaching in E/O is significant equals vehicle strikes. Predation is a problem. Please shoot cougars. Thrill kills are significant, deer shot a long way from the road and not taken kind of thing. A big problem is adult doe survival, well below sustainability levels in a number of areas.
I have a nine mile loop I frequently walk, coiuple times a week with my dogs. Public accessible ground, a mix of usfs and private timber company. ODFW has nine cougars located on the same loop that are part of a study group from what I’ve been told. I’ve also seen a couple wolves, see occasional tracks if there is snow and more than a few bears. Not a lot of deer for some reason

 

[ShootsManyBullets]

I have been able to sit down regularly with a couple of recently retired biologists. I was suprised to learn how many challenges there are. Poaching in E/O is significant equals vehicle strikes. Predation is a problem. Please shoot cougars. Thrill kills are significant, deer shot a long way from the road and not taken kind of thing. A big problem is adult doe survival, well below sustainability levels in a number of areas.
I have a nine mile loop I frequently walk, coiuple times a week with my dogs. Public accessible ground, a mix of usfs and private timber company. ODFW has nine cougars located on the same loop that are part of a study group from what I’ve been told. I’ve also seen a couple wolves, see occasional tracks if there is snow and more than a few bears. Not a lot of deer for some reason

when do the predators run out of things to eat?

 

[Salmonchaser]

Well they haven’t tried to eat me or my dogs-yet. I try to do my part with a cougar and bears tag every year, I”m just not very good at cougar hunting.

 

[gouch]

I have been able to sit down regularly with a couple of recently retired biologists. I was suprised to learn how many challenges there are. Poaching in E/O is significant equals vehicle strikes. Predation is a problem. Please shoot cougars. Thrill kills are significant, deer shot a long way from the road and not taken kind of thing. A big problem is adult doe survival, well below sustainability levels in a number of areas.
I have a nine mile loop I frequently walk, coiuple times a week with my dogs. Public accessible ground, a mix of usfs and private timber company. ODFW has nine cougars located on the same loop that are part of a study group from what I’ve been told. I’ve also seen a couple wolves, see occasional tracks if there is snow and more than a few bears. Not a lot of deer for some reason

When I was working for the Forest service we did a job near the South Umpqua river. Every day we would see and hear people running hounds. One day we got to talk to them. They were with the ODFW tagging cougars in the Jackson Creek drainage. Five years later we were back in that area, and we ran into the guy with his hounds and got to talking. He said they were originally out there for three months and tagged 50 cougar and were now back to check on them and tag any new ones.

He said they had been out there every day for a month and had not come across even one cat. It seems a virous had come through and wiped out the cougars. Funny thing was that when there were at least 50 cougars in the area we were seeing deer everywhere. But five years later when there were no cougars in the area, we would only occasionally see deer.